Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-08
DAILY HERALD
PULPIT POLITICS.
ur. Fay,s Political sermon ne
viewed.

nY. EaH58
viewed.
Los ANGELES, July 7, 1857.
Ep1roRs HERALD = In the sermon
preached by DR.. Eli Fay at the opera
House last Sunday morning some stare
ments made by him were go erroneous
that feel it my duty to call your a'ten'
tion to them. Oae of the passages
allude to is where he said:
1.-THE character of a government VIII
be, must be, indicated by the calioer ana
character of the voter. and as an Illus
tration of this we need not look beyond
our own country, as New York CITY IS
\ undoubtedly the most corrupt, the worst
\coverned of all the large cities OF the
vuld. Berlin, the capital of the Ger
nan Empire, where lives and rei2ns the
ION Man, il the most orderly, quiet,
knly and best governed city ever
In no other city of the size have
yer had the same feeling of
\ity. Talk of the impossibility
psiug the filthy dens, the hotbeds
10 German police force, animated
Dthe spirit of Bismarck, and we should
near no moro of the dwelling nonsense
that law, even Prohibition liquor law,
cannot be enforced"
Now, sir; in this statement, Dr.. Fay
was entirely erratic, and gave his infor'
nation relying probably on his own FER.
soma, observation during casual visit
to Berlin. As resident of that city TOR
many years, can safely say that the
condition of affairs there is not such as
DR.. Fay represented. In the first place,
at the last Berlin election, more than
one. third of the votes were polled by
Socialists, men who represent the very
acme of turbulence and disorder. Then
again, comparing Berlin, with its popu-
lation of l,llO0OO to the l,400, 600 of
New York, it is a startling fact,
but nevertheless a true one, that Berlin
has four times as many saloons as New
York. Now, looking at these figures.
ii Berlin, with four beer. houses to every
one we have, can keep tae spiendid
system of order and peace that DIR. Fay
asserts prevails there, prohibition law
in this country must be quite unneces-
sary. .. IL
DR.. Fay referred to the corrupt and
unblushing iniquity of our large cities,
where red handed Anarchists, with
torch and dynamite, threaten to sweep
every thing before them. But he should
have remembered that in Chicago at the
last election the Democratic and Repub-
lican parties combined to defeat an An
archist noIeinee for Mayor, and in the
result it was shown that the representa-
tive American population are fully able
to take care Of themselves.
DR.. Fay stated that in Massachusetts,
100 years ago it was difficult to tind an
adult who could neither read nor write,
but that at the present time in that
small State there are 100, 900 persons who
cannot write their own names. But he
entirely ignored the fact that the increase
of population will probably account for
this alarming discovery, and If he viii!
take the trouble to compare the ratios OF
population with the ratios OF illiteracy, l
think he will find that there will be very
little difference between the two results.
DR.. Fay's whole sermon was an on
slaught on the constitution OF the coun.
try; but the fact that under that very
constitution the New World has sprung
from scantily populated district to
mighty and pros porous empire with a
population of 10000, 600, is sufficient
evidence that the laws of the country, az
they now stand. are Just and wise ones.
There is an old Latin troverb that DIR.
Fay would do well to ponder over,
which reads: IN sutor ultra crepidam,
"Let not the shoemaker go beyond his
last" aud if preachers would attend to
their sacred calling. aud keep politics
out of the pulpit, it would be great
boon to those whom they sometimes
offend by their unstudied aud irrelevant
CIvIs.